Riaz Haq writes this data-driven blog to provide information, express his opinions and make comments on many topics. Subjects include personal activities, education, South Asia, South Asian community, regional and international affairs and US politics to financial markets. For investors interested in South Asia, Riaz has another blog called South Asia Investor at http://www.southasiainvestor.com and a YouTube video channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkrIDyFbC9N9evXYb9cA_gQ

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Indian Spy Arrest in Balochistan; Rouhani in Pakistan; Brussels Attacks

What was an Indian RAW agent doing in Balochistan, Pakistan? How did he enter Pakistan? Was he facilitated by Iran? Why does India have a big consulate in Zahedan where few visas are issued? How will this arrest impact India-Pakistan dialog? Will Pakistan insist on ending the ongoing India-Pakistan proxy war, aka terrorism, at the NSA-level talks between Nasser Janjua and Ajit Doval?

Why is Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani visiting Pakistan? What’s on the agenda? Energy? Trade? Security? Will Pakistan and Iran have a frank dialog at the highest level on India’s use of Iranian territory to foment terror by Baloch insurgents and sectarian militants in Pakistan? What will Iran demand in exchange?

Why is home-grown terror rising in Europe? Why are young Muslims born, raised and educated in Belgium, France and elsewhere in Europe so prone to recruitment by ISIS for violence in their own lands of birth? Are the European leaders introspecting about the causes? How will they end the anger and alienation felt by European Muslim youth? What lessons can the US learn from Europe to prevent similar situation?

Before writing and promoting an anti-Pakistan book in India, American analyst and author Christine Fair said this in 2009: "Having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity! Moreover, India has run operations from its mission in Mazar (through which it supported the Northern Alliance) and is likely doing so from the other consulates it has reopened in Jalalabad and Qandahar along the border. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Baluchistan". Prominent Pakistani Baloch insurgents like Brahamdagh Bugti are also being sheltered by the Afghan security and intelligence establishment along with RAW."

Do you guys even have some shame?Even here the fault is of ineffective integration of European Polity.I can tell you one thing Riaz Haq ,there is someone above watching you & for these lies you will have to answer someday.﻿

Akshay B: "Do you guys even have some shame?Even here the fault is of ineffective integration of European Polity.I can tell you one thing Riaz Haq ,there is someone above watching you & for these lies you will have to answer someday.﻿"

Isolation fuels the anger of young Muslims in the most wretched Parisian 'banlieues' " Anger had simmered in the banlieues for a very long time, bursting out periodically into murderous violence. Said, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, killers of the journalists at Hebdo spent their youths in banlieus as had their accomplice Amedy Coulibaly, 32, who shot a policewoman and took hostages at a supermarket. Banlieues have played a part in the lives of a majority of other Islamist terror suspects arrested in France. Ten years ago the deaths of 17-year-old Zyed and Bounna Traore, 15, while they were trying to escape from the police in a banlieue, unleashed three weeks of fierce rioting."

Singh: "Why don't other disenfranchised and alienated minority groups in Europe do the kind of violence and terror done by Muslims?"

Because they don't have groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS to recruit and train them to carry out such attacks. These terrorist groups have been created during the Cold War and subsequent western invasions of Muslim lands like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

Former US Sec of State and current presidential candidate Hilary Clinton has said that the US is now fighting the groups we created and funded during the Cold War.

Of course India is going to keep and use ALL it's options including Consulates where appropriate. That is no secret and India want's that message heard in Pakistan in no uncertain terms. After Mumbai Attacks, India will no longer be on the defensive. Game on! Any evidence of mischief and India will make Balochistan very unsettling for Pakistan. The West and UK are already privy to that (covertly).

Afghanistan Intelligence willingly arranged to have Indian missions there because Pakistan ISI have ruined any morsel of bilateral goodwill that Afghanistan had for Pakistan. From the creation of the Taliban to financing of opium trade, Afghans have no respect for Pakistani Military

CNHP: "After Mumbai Attacks, India will no longer be on the defensive. Game on! Any evidence of mischief and India will make Balochistan very unsettling for Pakistan. The West and UK are already privy to that (covertly). "

After Mumbai? Was East Pakistan before or after Mumbai? Read what Indian spies have written about RAW's ops in Pakistan:

President Obama claims rise of Isis is 'unintended consequence' of George W. Bush’s invasion in Iraq

Barack Obama has placed the blame for the swift rise of Isis at George W. Bush's feet by suggesting its growth was an unintended consequence of the US invasion of Iraq.

Mr Obama said: "Two things: one is, Isis is a direct outgrowth of al-Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion. Which is an example of unintended consequences. Which is why we should generally aim before we shoot" (At 12:20 in the VICE interview link below).

Explaining reasons people in those regions may have for joining militant groups such as Isis, Mr Obama said: “Where a young man who is growing up has no education and no prospects for the future, is looking around, and the one way that he can get validation, power, respect is if he’s a fighter. And this looks like the toughest gang around, so let me affiliate with them.

On 11 March, panic struck engineers at a giant power station on the banks of the Ganges river in West Bengal state.Readings showed that the water level in the canal connecting the river to the plant was going down rapidly. Water is used to produce steam to run the turbines and for cooling vital equipment of coal-fired power stations.By next day, authorities were forced to suspend generation at the 2,300-megawatt plant in Farakka town causing shortages in India's power grid. Next, the vast township on the river, where more than 1,000 families of plant workers live, ran out of water. Thousands of bottles of packaged drinking water were distributed to residents, and fire engines rushed to the river to extract water for cooking and cleaning.'Shortage of water'The power station - one of the 41 run by the state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation, which generates a quarter of India's electricity - was shut for 10 days, unprecedented in its 30-year history."Never before have we shut down the plant because of a shortage of water," says Milan Kumar, a senior plant official."We are being told by the authorities that water levels in the river have receded, and that they can do very little."Further downstream, say locals, ferries were suspended and sandbars emerged on the river. Some 13 barges carrying imported coal to the power station were stranded midstream because of insufficient water. Children were seen playing on a near-dry river bed.

Nobody is sure why the water level on the Ganges receded at Farakka, where India built a barrage in the 1970s to divert water away from Bangladesh. Much later, in the mid-1990s, the countries signed a 30-year agreement to share water. (The precipitous decline in water levels happened during a 10-day cycle when India is bound by the pact to divert most of the water to Bangladesh. The fall in level left India with much less water than usual.)Monsoon rains have been scanty in India for the second year in succession. The melting of snow in the Himalayas - the mountain holds the world's largest body of ice outside the polar caps and contributes up to 15% of the river flow - has been delayed this year, says SK Haldar, general manager of the barrage. "There are fluctuations like this every year," he says.'Filthy river'But the evidence about the declining water levels and waning health of the 2,500km (1,553 miles)-long Ganges, which supports a quarter of India's 1.3 billion people, is mounting.Part of a river's water level is determined by the groundwater reserves in the area drained by it and the duration and intensity of monsoon rains. Water tables have been declining in the Ganges basin due to the reckless extraction of groundwater. Much of the groundwater is, anyway, already contaminated with arsenic and fluoride. A controversial UN climate report said the Himalayan glaciers could melt to a fifth of the current levels by 2035.Emmanuel Theophilus and his son, Theo, kayaked on the Ganges during their 87-day, 2,500km journey of India's rivers last year. They asked fishermen and people living on the river what had changed most about it.

"All of them said there had been a reduction in water levels over the years. Also when we were sailing on the Ganges, we did not find a single turtle. The river was so dirty that it stank. There were effluents, sewage and dead bodies floating," says Mr Theophilus.The waning health of the sacred river underscores the rising crisis of water in India. Two successive bad monsoons have already led to a drought-like situation, and river basins are facing water shortages.Water conflictsT

The majority Muslim municipality of about 100,000 people is the second poorest in the country, with the second youngest population, high unemployment and crime rates, and a nearly 10% annual population turnover that makes it a highly transient community. By some accounts, nearly a third of Molenbeek residents are unemployed.Unsurprisingly, Molenbeek has become an almost ideal recruiting ground for the Islamic State, and Belgium has the highest number per capita of Western foreign fighters who have traveled to join the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (and, more recently, Libya). And the majority of these came from Brussels, and Molenbeek in particular, according to Interior Minister Jan Jambon. The local municipality has been described as one of a few Islamic State “hotbeds of recruitment” around the world. In the words of Belgian Prime Minster Charles Michel, “Almost every time, there is a link to Molenbeek.” This week’s bombings were no exception.Recruiters offer a sense of family to people from broken homes; of belonging to people who feel disenfranchised from society; of empowerment to people who feel discriminated against; and of a higher calling and purpose to people who feel adrift. Recruiters pitch small groups of friends and family together: “You don’t really belong here. You are not wanted here. You can’t live here. You can’t get a job here.” Only then comes the religious extremist part: “Clearly, you should not be living among the infidels.”What Islamic State offers them, in a nutshell, is a fast track from zero to hero.Mix in a gangster culture and you have a combustible combination. In ghettoized neighborhoods like Molenbeek, today's criminals are tomorrow’s terrorists, and the radicalization process is in hyperdrive. As a result, “these guys are not stereotypical Islamists. They gamble, drink, do drugs. They are lady killers, wear Armani, fashionable haircuts. And they live off crime,” according to an article published by Pro Publica. Time and again, it turns out the local police were aware of suspects like Abdeslam, but only as small-time thieves. “We knew of several Paris-related suspects before,” a police officer told me as I sat down with the mayor, “but not for terrorism reasons, just petty crime and small incidents.”

Religious extremists will never succeed in taking over #Pakistan. #LahoreBlast http://gu.com/p/4hqhy/stw

Religious minorities are an indelible part of the fabric of Pakistani society; they are represented by the white stripe on the Pakistani flag. This is echoed in the words of founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s most famous speech: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”

While Jinnah’s message of secularism never caught on in Pakistan, religious coexistence has always had a well-defined place in the Pakistani way of life. The horrific suicide bombing in Lahore on Easter Sunday once again reminded us of the vulnerability of Pakistan’s Christians, and of the fragility of coexistence.

A suicide bomber stood next to the children’s rides in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park and blew himself up, killing at last count 70 people and injuring 300, many of them Christians, most of them women and children.

The group that claimed responsibility for the bombing, the Jamaat ul-Ahrar, is a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban. Last year they killed 15 and injured 70 in an attack on two Catholic churches in a predominantly Christian neighbourhood in Lahore.

The sights and sounds in the immediate aftermath of the attack were staggering, though sadly these apocalyptic scenes are now becoming familiar global images, in Ankara, Brussels and Iskandariya this week alone.

Women holding each other and wailing in shock, the blood of dead children staining their parents’ clothes, a young man with an open head wound running into the hospital carrying a wounded child in his arms

The Jamaat ul-Ahrar soon issued a statement: their target had been Christians celebrating Easter, although they said they never intended to hurt women or children, only Christian males. Their words belied the indiscriminate cruelty of their attack.

They also reflect the fact that the Pakistani Taliban have been weakened by the continued military operation against them in the tribal belt and in Karachi. They have now splintered into smaller groups, acting not as a cohesive unit but as lone wolves and renegades that hit soft targets like schools and parks because they can no longer reach military targets or security installations.

But jihadis are not representative of all Pakistanis. One thing to understand about Pakistan is that most of its people are socially conservative Muslims, but only a minority actually advocates and enacts violence.

The majority of Pakistanis are peaceful and would not act violently towards religious minorities even if they do not share their religious beliefs. Indeed, in times like these, Pakistanis forget about who is a Christian or a Muslim, and only think about helping the injured.

As word of the bombing spread through television and social media, people in the immediate vicinity rushed to take the wounded to hospital in their cars, taxis and rickshaws before ambulances reached the scene.

Pakistan’s answer to Uber, a car service called Careem, offered free rides to anyone wanting to donate blood at the hospital. One of the most widely tweeted images was of a young doctor on call with a cannula in his arm; he was donating blood in between treating patients. People from as far away as Karachi stood ready to donate food and water to afflicted families.

Religious extremists will never succeed in taking over Pakistan, even if they maintain deadly effectiveness in spreading the virus of terrorism all over the world.

As with any epidemic, the weakest are always the ones to fall first. Yet humanity is the one thing that inoculates us against its reach. As long as we have our humanity, we will still remain united as Pakistanis, no matter who we choose to call our God.

Why isolation only happens with Muslims all over the world? Hindus, Jews, Christens, Chinease are successful and thriving in every part of the world they migrate. Muslims are not happy in there own counties and not happy anywhere else. So the problem is inherited in Islam which does not believe in co-existence. You talk to any muslim and at some point in time you can sense he/she wants to convert you. Why cant muslims acknowledge the fact we are all humans and are all different but can live happily together. Happiness will not come if the whole world becomes muslim rather the world will go into dark ages.﻿

BMKJ:"Why isolation only happens with Muslims all over the world? Hindus, Jews, Christens, Chinease are successful and thriving in every part of the world they migrate. Muslims are not happy in there own counties and not happy anywhere else. So the problem is inherited in Islam which does not believe in co-existence. You talk to any muslim and at some point in time you can sense he/she wants to convert you. Why cant muslims acknowledge the fact we are all humans and are all different but can live happily together. Happiness will not come if the whole world becomes muslim rather the world will go into dark ages.﻿"

Which countries has the West been invading and occupying for the past several decades? Are these Christian, Hindu or Jewish countries? Where has the West actively promoted radicalization during the Cold War? Hindu, Christian and Jewish countries? Both Obama and Clinton have acknowledged that Al Qaeda and ISIS are the result of west's policies in the Middle East and West Asia. As to co-existence, read a little of real history, not Hindu revisionist history. You'll learn how tolerant Muslim rulers have been to Jews, Christians and Hindus in an era when such tolerance was non-existent.

TheMoslemConquestofIndiaAn Extract from‘The Story of Civilization’By Will & Ariel Durant[Volume 1, Chapter 16] The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is adiscouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicatecomplex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within. The Hindus had allowed their strength to be wasted in internal division and war; they hadadopted religions like Buddhism and Jainism, which unnerved them for the tasks of life; they had failed to organize their forces for the protection of their frontiers and their capitals, their wealth and their freedom, from the hordes of Scythians, Huns, Afghans and Turks hovering about India's boundaries and waiting for national weakness to let them in.For four hundred years (600-1000 A.D.) India invited conquest; and at last it came. The firstMoslem attack was a passing raid upon Multan, in the western Punjab (664 A.D.) Similarraids occurred at the convenience of the invaders during the next three centuries, with theresult that the Moslems established themselves in the Indus valley about the same time thattheir Arab co-religionists in the West were fighting the battle of Tours (732 A.D.) for themastery of Europe.But the real Moslem conquest of India did not come till the turn of the first millennium afterChrist. In the year 997 a Turkish chieftain by the name of Mahmud became sultan of thelittle estate of Ghazni, in eastern Afghanistan. Mahmud knew that his throne was young andpoor, and saw that India, across the border, was old and rich; the conclusion was obvious.Pretending a holy zeal for destroying Hindu idolatry, he swept across the frontier with aforce inspired by a pious aspiration for booty. He met the unprepared Hindus at Bhimnagar,slaughtered them, pillaged their cities, destroyed their temples, and carried away theaccumulated treasures of centuries.Returning to Ghazni he astonished the ambassadors of foreign powers by displaying “jewelsand unbored pearls and rubies shining like sparks, or like wine congealed with ice, andemeralds like fresh sprigs of myrtle, and diamonds in size and weight like pomegranates.”72 Each winter Mahmud descended into India, filled his treasure chest with spoils, and amusedhis men with full freedom to pillage and kill; each spring he returned to his capital richerthan before

Have you ever wondered why Will Durant is alone among recognized historians to claim "The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history..."?

Do you know what used to happen in that era when "genocides" claimed by Durant occurred? Like what happened to the natives during European colonization of America and Australia? Or during the Aryan invasion of India that resulted in the destruction of the Indus Valley Civilization?

If such a genocide as claimed by Durant occurred in India, would there be any Hindus left to tell the tale?

For your knowledge, here;s a list of the 10 bloodiest wars in human history:

http://www.wonderslist.com/10-deadliest-wars-in-human-history/

It includes Timur's wars at #7. Timur was Muslim but his victims weren't just non-Muslims. He also killed a large number of Muslims and destroyed Muslim countries.

In fact, Timur's heaviest blow was against the Islamized Tatar Golden Horde at the time.

The Crusaders perpetrated a century of genocides that murdered a million people, equivalent as a proportion of the world’s population at the time to the Nazi holocaust.

Shortly afterwards, the Cathars of southern France were exterminated in another Crusader genocide because they had embraced the Albigensian heresy.

The Inquisition, according to Rummel, killed 350,000 people.

Martin Luther’s rant against the Jews is barely distinguishable from the writings of Hitler.

The three founders of Protestantism, Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIII, had thousands of heretics burned at the stake, as they and their followers took Jesus literally when he said, “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

Following the biblical injunction, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” Christians killed 60,000-100,000 accused witches in the European witchhunts.

The European Wars of Religion had death rates that were double that of World War I and that were in the range of World War II in Europe.

Christian conquistadors massacred and enslaved native Americans in vast numbers, and perhaps twenty million were killed in all (not counting unintentional epidemics) by the European settlement of the Americas.

World War I, as I recall, was a war fought mostly by Christians against Christians. As for World War II and its associated horrors, see my answer to the previous question.

The Crusaders perpetrated a century of genocides that murdered a million people, equivalent as a proportion of the world’s population at the time to the Nazi holocaust.

Shortly afterwards, the Cathars of southern France were exterminated in another Crusader genocide because they had embraced the Albigensian heresy.

The Inquisition, according to Rummel, killed 350,000 people.

Martin Luther’s rant against the Jews is barely distinguishable from the writings of Hitler.

The three founders of Protestantism, Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIII, had thousands of heretics burned at the stake, as they and their followers took Jesus literally when he said, “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

Following the biblical injunction, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” Christians killed 60,000-100,000 accused witches in the European witchhunts.

The European Wars of Religion had death rates that were double that of World War I and that were in the range of World War II in Europe.

Christian conquistadors massacred and enslaved native Americans in vast numbers, and perhaps twenty million were killed in all (not counting unintentional epidemics) by the European settlement of the Americas.

World War I, as I recall, was a war fought mostly by Christians against Christians. As for World War II and its associated horrors, see my answer to the previous question.

Why isolation only happens with Muslims all over the world? Hindus, Jews, Christens, Chinese are successful and thriving in every part of the world they migrate. "

You mean like 6 million Jews killed by Europeans? or perhaps you are talking about the Basques, the Roma, the north-Irish? Ever heard of the Chinese head tax? or Japanese-American internment camps? Have any inklings of how ingenious Americans are treated in USA and Canada? I know its hard to read and write with that sub-par Indian education but if you can understand half of my massage google the groups i have mentioned above, you might learned something.

#Pakistan may not give consular access to #RAW officer who reveals #India plans for speedboat attacks in #Gwadar http://tribune.com.pk/story/1074088/straining-ties-pakistan-may-not-give-india-consular-access-to-yadav/ …

Yadav, who was flown to Islamabad hours after his arrest, told investigators that his deputy whom he identified as Rakish, alias Rizwan, still lived in Chabahar. Rakish is said to be the second-in-command of RAW in the Iranian port city. Investigators said Yadav hails from Mumbai and entered Balochistan illegally from Chabahar using the fake identity of Hussain Mubarak Patel.

Yadav revealed that Baloch separatists were trained in Mumbai to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s coastal areas. “They have been provided modern speedboats for this purpose,” a security official quoted him as telling investigators.

He also confessed to training separatists in Balochistan. “My mission was to train Baloch separatists for attacks in the coastal areas of the province,” he told investigators. “The targets included Gwadar deep seaport, Karachi’s coast, and ships and installations of Pakistan Navy.”

‘RAW officer’ arrested in Balochistan

Yadav also said that he had arranged modern speedboats for Baloch separatists from Chabahar port. Members of Baloch separatist groups were taken from Gwadar, Pasni, Ormara and Jiwani by boat to Mumbai where they were trained for three months in driving speedboats, another security official quoted Yadav as saying.

After the completion of their training, Baloch separatists were left in the coastal areas of Balochistan to carry out attacks, Yadav said. “Baloch separatists were tasked with sabotaging the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” he added. “Their targets included engineers, technical staff and security forces.”

Pakistan has repeatedly claimed that India was stoking violence, especially in Balochistan to sabotage the CPEC, a gigantic project of road and railway networks linking China’s Xinjiang province with Gwadar port. Last year, Pakistan’s permanent representative at the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi had handed over dossiers containing evidence of India’s involvement in Balochistan and other parts of the country.

Pakistan on Tuesday released a video in which an arrested Indian spy is heard confessing New Delhi's alleged involvement in terrorist activities in Balochistan.

Kulbushan Yadav says in the video that he had been directing various activities in Karachi and Balochistan "at the behest of RAW", the Indian intelligence agency, and that he was still with the Indian Navy.

Yadav added that he had played a role in the deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi, Dawn reported.

The video was released at a press conference attended by Pakistan Army spokesman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa and Information Minister Pervez Rashid.

Terming Yadav's arrest a "big achievement", Bajwa said Yadav was directly handled by the RAW chief and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

"His goal was to disrupt development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with Gwadar port as a special target," Bajwa said.

"This is nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism... There can be no clearer evidence of Indian interference in Pakistan."

Yadav is heard saying in the video that he was still a serving officer in the Indian Navy and would be due for retirement in 2022.

"By 2002, I commenced intelligence operations. In 2003, I established a small business in Chabahar in Iran.

"As I was able to achieve undetected existence and visits to Karachi in 2003 and 2004. Having done some basic assignments within India for RAW, I was picked up by RAW in 2013 end," Yadav said.

He said his purpose was to meet Baloch insurgents and carry out "activities with their collaboration".

Law enforcement agencies arrested Yadav in an intelligence-based raid in Balochistan's Chaman near the border with Afghanistan last week. He held a valid Indian visa.

India denied Yadav was an intelligence operative and said he was formerly from the navy. New Delhi also demanded consular access to Yadav, which has been denied.

Yadav was shifted to Islamabad for interrogation, during which an unnamed official said the spy revealed he had bought boats at the Iranian port in Chabahar in order to target Karachi and Gwadar ports, Dawn reported.

India may invest as much as $20 billion in Iran’s energy industry and ports and boost imports of crude from the the Persian Gulf nation if it gets favorable terms, India’s Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in an interview.Indian companies are evaluating opportunities to explore for oil and natural gas, build petrochemical plants and gas-processing facilities and expand ports including the new industrial hub of Chabahar, Pradhan said Saturday during a visit to Tehran. The two countries agreed to plan for development of Iran’s Farzad-B gas field, with the aim of deciding whether to award a contract to an Indian group by October, according to a copy of the memorandum signed by the ministers and posted on Pradhan’s Twitter account.“We were importing a good amount of oil from Iran in the challenging days, so we will continue to import that amount,” Pradhan said. “That’s a business level discussion regarding my companies -- if they will be getting good terms they may increase their import.” India is buying about 350,000 barrels of Iranian crude a day, Iran’s oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, said after meeting Pradhan, according to the ministry’s news service Shana.Paying EurosIran is seeking foreign investment to revive its oil, gas and petrochemical industries since international sanctions on its economy were removed in January. India was one of six buyers authorized to purchase Iranian oil under U.S. restrictions. Buyers still owe Iran oil payments because the curbs hampered their ability to transfer funds, and U.S. rules continue to bar them using dollars to pay for Iranian oil.India will use euros to pay $6 billion in oil payments it owes Iran, Pradhan said.Indian firms are targeting the development of Chabahar on Iran’s Gulf of Oman coast outside the Strait of Hormuz, he said. About a fifth of the oil consumed worldwide each day passes through the Strait, a shipping choke point that separates the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman and Indian Ocean. Pradhan gave no target dates for potential investment in Iran by Indian companies.Saudi Arabia is interested in investing in refineries that India is expanding, Pradhan said, referring to talks the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held during a visit this month to Saudi Arabia. Refineries planned by Hindustan Petroleum Corp. in Rajasthan and a new facility planned by India’s state-run oil processors were among the investment opportunities that Indian and Saudi officials discussed during that visit, he said.

"I must highlight that India, our immediate neighbor, has openly challenged this development initiative," army chief General Raheel Sharif told a conference in the port city of Gwadar.

The newly built port in southwestern Baluchistan province is central to the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, which is a package of railroads, highways, pipelines and power plants estimated to cost $46 billion.

Sharif said "hostile intelligence agencies" are averse to this grand project, but that Pakistan is determined to protect and develop the CPEC, connecting western China to the Arabian Sea.

"I would like to make a special reference to Indian Intelligence Agency RAW [Research and Analysis Wing] that is blatantly involved in destabilizing Pakistan,” the general asserted.

History of suspicion

Pakistan has long accused India of training and funding separatist militants waging a low-level insurgency in Baluchistan.

Last month, Pakistani authorities announced they captured a suspected Indian spy in Baluchistan, identified as Kulbhushan Jadhav. The military also aired video footage of Jadhav saying he was working out of his base in Chabahar in neighboring Iran.

New Delhi has confirmed that Jadhav is a former Indian navy officer, but denied he has anything to do with RAW, saying he had taken early retirement from the military. It also rejected the video confession of Jadhav as induced by torture.

India says it has sought consular access to its detained national, but Pakistan has not yet responded.

Sharif described CPEC as a corridor of peace and prosperity, not only for the people of Pakistan and China, but also for the region and beyond.

"Therefore, it is important for all to leave behind confrontation, and focus on cooperation," he added.

The CPECBSE -4.45 % runs through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Even as Beijing claims this is purely a commercial project, India believes three divisions of the Chinese Army are stationed in the PoK part of the CEPC, setting off alarm bells in New Delhi.

Doval was likely to object to the $46-billion project, besides China's veto in the UN against India's call to ban Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist Masood Azhar, people familiar with the developments indicated. China is un ..

Doval's assertions would come in the backdrop of Pak Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif 's allegation that India was seeking to undermine Chinese investments in the CPEC. "I must highlight that India has openly challenged this development initiative," Gen Sharif said at a conference in Gwadar Port, a part of CPEC, on Monday.

Rose Dukru, 32, and her family belong to a new generation of businessmen in India's northeastern state of Nagaland.

But a few years ago, they decided to go back to their farming roots and began to cultivate vegetables in the village of Zhavame, unaware of the difficulties they would soon face.

"Our cabbages are famous throughout the state. In a year, the village contributes to a market value of about 17 million [rupees, or $254,000] through its produce," she said.

Yet her family, like other farmers in the region, only see a small percentage of the revenue. When they send their vegetables to be sold in Dimapur, the state's commercial centre, its municipal council levies transportation taxes on the vehicles bringing the produce to market - as do several armed groups along the 140km-long route from Zhavame to Dimapur.

When the cabbages finally reach the wholesale market, traders set the price of the produce, irrespective of the farmers' production cost.

"The traders have formed a syndicate and they pay something known as 'protection tax' to armed groups that gives them the power to dictate over the poor farmers. There's price monopoly here when there should be a free market. If we're lucky, we make a small profit. Otherwise, most days end with deficits," Dukru explained.

Last July her father, Sanyi Dukru, 54, was assaulted by traders and found unconscious by the police at midnight. As the chairman of a local farmers' committee, Sanyi Dukru spent his days in Dimapur inquiring about the market prices of vegetables and updating farmers back home. That day was no different.

"There was an argument, and the traders attacked him with the furniture lying around. A few suspects who were taken into custody have been bailed. I don't know whether to expect any justice from the system," said Dukru dejectedly.

Multiple taxation layers

Nagaland, a state in northeastern India, has long been a restive region, with many demanding sovereignty or full independence from the central government.

The Naga National Council (NNC) declared the area to be independent a day before India's independence in 1947, and later claimed that a plebiscite it held found that 99.9 percent of people favoured sovereignty.

The Indian government rejected the plebiscite, and after several failed attempts by the government to resolve the issue, the NNC took up arms in 1955. The Indian army retaliated with counterinsurgency operations, and in 1958, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act was passed, which controversially gave Indian security forces immunity in conflict-ridden areas.

When the state of Nagaland was formed in 1963, it was given a special status and exempted from taxes, but disturbance in the area continued. Although separatist groups signed ceasefire agreements with the Indian government, there remain four major, and at least five small, separatist groups in Nagaland today.

Each runs a parallel government of sorts in the state, fights against the others, and levies taxes on state residents.

In 2013, a people's movement called Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) was formed to protest against the taxation by armed groups and corruption in the state government.

Joel Nillo Naga, a social activist and the co-chairman of ACAUT, said that in the past, Nagaland residents voluntarily helped provide NNC fighters with rations and other supplies. "But now, we're asked to pay several taxes to several groups. People are being exploited on the pretext of nationalism," he said.

India, Afghanistan and Iran have finalised the text of the trilateral agreement of Chabahar (Chabahar Agreement) for developing international transport transit corridor, which will provide India access to Afghanistan through the Iranian port of Chabahar. The text has been finalised, in the 2nd technical meeting between the representatives of the three countries on April 11, New Delhi.

Situated in Sistan and Baluchistan province of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Port of Chabahar will help in facilitating maritime trade between the countries of the region. The port will also considerably reduce the transportation cost of commercial goods in the region.

Situated in the Gulf of Oman, the route via Chabahar port to Afghanistan will provide India the much-needed access to send goods to Afghanistan and regions of Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.

The announcement of the finalisation of the Agreement came after the visit of Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to Iran, on April 16, where she discussed the participation of India in Chabahar Port and other matters related to connectivity and energy cooperation.

A release by the Ministry of External Affairs of India stated that when the agreement comes into effect it will considerably enhance the use of Chabahar Port, contribute to Afghanistan’s economic growth and facilitate better connectivity between the region, especially India’s connectivity to Afghanistan as well as Central Asia.

“The agreement will be a strategic bulwark for larger flow of goods and people between the three nations and the region,” it added.

The statement said the trilateral agreement to be expedited at a high level after finishing the essential internal procedures in the three countries.

Baloch separatist Naela Qadir Baloch, now living in exile in Canada, is touring India for the past several days to talk about Balochstan

"Every other day the construction activities of this corridor (CPEC) come under attack from our boys. The roads which are being built are destroyed and recently a radar station was destroyed due to which the visit of Chinese Prime Minister to Gwadar was cancelled casuing much embarrassment to Pakistan government. China is looting the resources of our province including the gold reserves and turning a blind eye to the genocide of the Baloch"

Iranian ambassador Gholamreza Ansari also stressed that the "Americans will not let it happen".

"Those who have invested in the LNG (liquified petroleum gas) projects in India will not allow the pipeline venture to take off, he said at a media interaction at the Foreign Correspondnets' Club here Thursday evening..

"People who have invested in LNG in India, I don't think they will let any pipes to come in," he said.

"Americans are looking for the Indian market for the future and any sort of pipeline will put and end to these investments. So, I don't think pipeline can be a serious project. I am sure Americans will not let this project go ahead," he added.

He said that the Chabahar port project that will open up access to central Asia has been almost finalised.

"It has almost been finalised. Only the signatures at the ministerial level is due," he said.

Here are a few excerpts on Sardar Akbar Bugti from Economist Magazine in 2006:

To reach the cave Mr Bugti calls home, your correspondent trekked for a week through scorched valleys and moonlit hills, circumventing army pickets. Though half-crippled by thrombosis, Mr Bugti, who claims to have killed his first man at the age of twelve, was in good spirits. “It is better to die quickly in the mountain than slowly in bed,” he said, surrounded by a silent crowd of Bugti gunmen. A fan of Nietzsche and Genghis Khan, he speaks perfect English and delights in punctiliously-pronounced discourses on the love-life of camels and wreaking horrible revenge on his foes. “What is better than seeing your enemies driven before you and then taking their women to bed?” he says.

While Bugti tribesmen harry the army, a mysterious outfit, the Baluchistan Liberation Army, which the government says is also run by the sardars, is attacking policemen and soldiers across the province. Both groups are believed to have received assistance from India, across the nearby porous border with Afghanistan. In the past few years, 400 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in the conflict, as well as several hundred people in army attacks. Pakistan's Human Rights Commission has documented government atrocities, including a massacre of 12 civilians in January.

Mr Bugti has a dreadful history of oppressing his people, yet the grievances he claims to be fighting for are real. Moreover, Pakistanis see the conflict as an extension of an even more unpopular campaign General Musharraf is waging against Pushtun Islamic fundamentalists in the northern tribal areas. In the past two years, for no obvious gain, over 600 soldiers have been killed there—including six on June 26th in a suicide bomb attack in North Waziristan tribal agency.

General Musharraf is believed to be sincere in wanting to bring greater prosperity to Baluchistan—and to make it the hub of Pakistan's energy sector. Yet he seems convinced that to end its insurgency, he has only to crush the bothersome sardars. In that, though, he is wrong.

The Unrepresented Nations and People’s Organization (UNPO) organized an excellent conference on Balochistan on Tuesday in Washington D.C. I describe it as a successful conference because the organizers managed to bring some notable speakers, including Senator Paul Strauss of the District of Columbia and representatives from globally respectable organizations such as the Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The conference discussed various aspects of the conflict in Balochistan but, unfortunately, it turned ugly at the end when panelist Tarek Fatah used extremely filthy language against a Pakistani reporter whom he accused of being “an ISI agent” even before the poor reporter from the ARY News could ask his question. When a Baloch father present at the conference felt uncomfortable with the use of vulgar language in front of two of his daughters and insisted that this was not the Baloch way of conducting dialogue even with one’s worst enemies, an unapologetic Fatah lambasted him too.

While the UNPO had provided the Baloch a unique opportunity to voice their grievances, it is entirely upon the Baloch people to take advantage of these opportunities to put their case forward. Washington is undeniably the most important world capital for the Baloch if they want to get international support for their movement. Emotional and abusive supporters of the Baloch cause, such as Mr. Fatah, certainly look entertaining on an Arnab Goswami talk-show but they will have a damaging effect on the Baloch movement.

With the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorating, India is also looking to find various ways to maintain its foothold in the war-torn nation to counter Pakistani influence. With the land route to Afghanistan through Pakistan unavailable, it's looking at Iran to trade with Afghanistan.India is investing more than $150m to develop Chabahar port in south-eastern Iran. It hopes the port will give a transit route to Afghanistan.In the future, it also wants to bring gas from Central Asia and then transport it to India. The project will also give sea access to Afghanistan.-----

"From India's perspective, Chabahar port is a gateway to Afghanistan. From Chabahar there is a road which goes all the way to Afghanistan and it will link up with a road which India has already built inside Afghanistan. In a way, India is ensuring that there could be no exit strategy from Afghanistan," says Mr Roy-Chaudhury.Mr Modi plans to visit Kabul in June and he is expected to sign a trilateral trade agreement with Iran and Afghanistan for Chabahar port.

During his meeting with the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, Mr Modi would want to assure that India is keen to establish deeper and long-standing ties.But Iranians may be a bit wary given their past experience.------India is home to the world's second highest Shia population, next only to Iran. Iran's influence over an estimated 45 million Shias in India is regarded as significant. With Iran emerging after international sanctions, it offers great investment opportunities to Indian companies.But the bilateral ties suffered setbacks following international sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme. As successive Indian governments moved closer to the US, their Iran policy took a back seat, much to the displeasure of the Iranians.Iranians were dismayed when India voted against their country at a vote in the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2009. Then India significantly reduced oil imports from Tehran following US pressure."That was a bitter lesson for the Iranians. They understood that India would not take Iran's side on any dispute and India would not sacrifice its relations with the US and the West for Iran," says Fatemeh Aman, an Iran-South Asia affairs analyst based in the US.During his first two years at office, Mr Modi focused more on India's immediate neighbourhood and Indian Ocean rim countries. Relations with the United States and the west were given a priority.

----

When the international sanctions were in place, India could not pay for the oil it had imported from Iran. It still owes $6.5bn in unpaid dues and Delhi is still finding a way to facilitate the payment.Western banks are still reluctant to do business with Iran when some of the US sanctions are still in place.India is aware that China is making inroads into Iran to rebuild the economy devastated by the sanctions. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, visited Iran in January this year to firm up business ties. Beijing is already Iran's largest trading partner.

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I am the Founder and President of PakAlumni Worldwide, a global social network for Pakistanis, South Asians and their friends. I also served as Chairman of the NEDians Convention 2007. In addition to being a South Asia watcher, an investor, business consultant and avid follower of the world financial markets, I have more than 25 years experience in the hi-tech industry. I have been on the faculties of Rutgers University and NED Engineering University and cofounded two high-tech startups, Cautella, Inc. and DynArray Corp and managed multi-million dollar P&Ls. I am a pioneer of the PC and mobile businesses and I have held senior management positions in hardware and software development of Intel’s microprocessor product line from 8086 to Pentium processors. My experience includes senior roles in marketing, engineering and business management. I was recognized as “Person of the Year” by PC Magazine for my contribution to 80386 program. I have an MS degree in Electrical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
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